Scotland Wiki:Categorisation
This page is for detailed reasons and recommendations about why we have categories and how to make the best use of them, including ways of arranging articles and subcategories in other than strict alphabetical order. Introduction Categories (introduced to Wikipedia in 2004 and since available in all sites using MediaWiki software) are an excellent way of linking related pages and automatically listing them in alphabetical order. Spin-off benefits include the ability to see if there are gaps in a subject or inconsistencies in naming or grouping. Every category except the top one should be a subcategory of at least one category, but will often be suitable for two or more; for example, "Category:Non-profit organisations in Scotland" could be in both "Category:Non-profit organisations" and "Category:Organisations based in Scotland". Similarly, every article should be in at least one category but will very often be suitable for two or more. Names of categories #Category and article names should: ## specify "Scotland" somehow if the category or article is confined to Scotland subjects ## not start with "Scotland" unless it is part of a formal name - in this respect we differ from Wikipedia because most of our categories will be specifically about Scotland, and their alphabetical listing would be unbalanced and hard to use if most were under "S" but similar categories were under the subject name ## otherwise match those of Wikipedia as closely as convenient (apart from using Scottish-English spelling) because that leads to considerable time-saving and helps with cross-referencing (for example, in the use of Template:alsoWP) #Category names should be plural if any of the contents can be counted #Use the MediaWiki standard "sentence case" (where most words do not have a capital letter) Overlapping subject-matter If two categories have overlapping subject-matter with each having some that's not in the other (eg Category:Languages of Scotland and Category:English language or Category:United Kingdom and Category:Ireland), they can each include (in the text portion) a link to the other (which can be quickly and neatly effected by using Template:seealso listing one or more related categories). However, neither should be a subcategory of the other or circularity, nonsensical paths, and endless loops can result. With articles, more freedom is allowed: an article can be in a category if a large part of its subject-matter belongs in the category even if some doesn't. For example, "People born in Scotland" can be in Category:Scotland even though millions of them have emigrated. Fiddling with the listing order Some categories are best if articles are arranged by some order other than the actual article name. Lists of people, for example. To list in a category under something other than the article name (eg a surname), add a pipe and the desired alternative just before the final brackets, eg Connolly, Billy. If a page is in more than one category for which it wants a special order, use the "magic word" "DEFAULTSORT" (which you can find below the edit box for easy clicking). When an article has the same name as a category (or almost), it should be listed at the top of the category by adding "|*" before the end brackets of the category link. Similarly with a "Scotland" subcategory of a "world" category, so that it lists before other countries, e.g. "Cities of Scotland" has "*" as part of its categorisation. How you can help improve the categorisation #Study the categories on a larger Wikia site such as the New Zealand Wiki and on the Starter Pages Wikia #Use the Talk pages to suggest categories that have not yet been used #Browse the "special" pages to find pages that are not in categories (and put them in one or two): * * * Categorisation *